Local gamers set two new world records

A GROUP of Westville boys have set two new Guinness World Records – first for breaking the world record for playing Minecraft and the second by completing a total of 42 hours of LAN gaming, rendering it the longest LAN gaming effort.

The group, which is headed by Jordan Taschner, decided that this was something they could do since they all loved to game. They chose to host the event at Channing Morris’s home at 16 Warpsite Avenue in Westville from 8 to 10 January, and set up the night before.

The boys, Jordan Taschner, Tristan Featherstone, Jordan Mindry, Michael Bennett, Daniel Savides, Mark Commons, Richard Woolacott and Channing Morris, who are all 16 years old and in Grade 11 at Westville Boys’ High School, began their challenge at 8am on Thursday, 8 January.

The boys programmed the following equipment, a GoPro Hero 2, a laptop, a video camera, webcams and a DSLR camera to record the event.

The group was split into two, allowing the boys to stand every now and then. Each group took 10-minute breaks every two hours in order to have their breakfast, lunch and dinner. The 10-minute break also allowed for at least four people to still be LAN-ing at all times. Toilet breaks were five minutes each (one at a time).

The concerned moms formed a group chat on WhatsApp to keep updated and supply food and snacks when necessary.

“The first night and second day were easy, but the second night began to take a toll on us. We were so tired that we ran around the pool and jogged around the house just to stay awake. We also had lots of energy drinks like Red Bull and Bio Plus sachets, courtesy of our moms, to help us stay awake,” said Taschner.

The record for playing Minecraft stood at 24 hours; however the boys broke that record by hanging on for another hour. The longest LAN record stood at 40 hours, but the boys also beat that and set a new world record of longest LAN gaming at 42 hours.

Taschner said they tried to stretch it to 48 hours, however fatigue set in and the boys began to ‘pass out’ one by one.

“Once the first record was broken, some continued to play Minecraft while others took to Halo Combat Evolved, Left 4 Dead II, Unreal Tournament 3 and Quake 4,” said Taschner.

They eventually called it quits after beating the longest LAN gaming record by one hour, and stopped the clock at six hours remaining, which was at 3am on Saturday, 10 January.

Taschner said he had contacted Guinness World Records to notify them of the new records and is awaiting their feedback so he can upload all their data, logs and other information.

“It was unreal, but we are glad we did it,” said Taschner.